Shoe sewing machine



Jan. 13, 1953 Original Filed May l5, 1946 A. R. MoRRlLL 2,625,124

SHOE s EwING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheetl l Jan.- 13, 1953 A. R. MoRRlLL sHoE SEWING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed May 15, 1946 Jan. 13, 1953 A. R. MoRRlLL. 2,625,124

sHoE SEWING MACHINE Original Filed May 15, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Jan. 13, 1953 2,625,124 snoE SEWING MACHINE Alfred R. Morrill, deceased, late of Woodstock,

Vt., by Ruth W. Morrill, administratrix, Woodstock, Vt., assigner to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Original application May 15, 1946, Serial No. 669,830. Divided vand this application October 27, 1948, Serial No. 56,766

i Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in shoe sewing machines and more particularly to an inseam sewing machine of the general type having a hook needle, a looper and a thread finger adapted for forming a chain stitch.

The present application is a division of application Serial No. 669,830 filed May `15, 1946, now Patent No. 2,529,095, 4to which reference may be had for constructions indicated in the drawings, or herein referred to without being specifically described.

It is a principal object of the invention to provide a novel and improved shoe sewing mechanism for sewing a chain stitch with an open as opposed to a closed loop which is simple and well adapted for efficient handling of the sewing thread under conditions of high speed operation of the machine.

With the above and other objects in `View as may hereinafter appear the several features of the invention consist in the devices, combinations and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and claimed which together with the advantages to be obtained thereby will be readily understood from the following description taken in .connection with the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation-of the operating head of .an automatic shoe .machine adapted for sewing and for trimming the inseam, only so much of the machine having been shown as believed necessary to show the connection of the present invention therewith;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view in right side elevation 'of the operating head of the machine illustrating particularly the lseveral vsewing instrumentalities and the operating cam and follower connections therefor; Y

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale illustrating particularly the supporting structure and operating connections for the thread ringer and looper; and 'y Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of the inseam lsewing and work guiding devices, the needle being vshown through the work and with the thread finger and looper at the start of their needle threading motion.

The shoe machine illustrated in the drawings as embodying in a preferred form the several features of the invention, is an automatic machine of the general type provided with a shoe sluncorting jack and supporting and actuating mechanism for the jack adapted for imparting turning, tipping and feeding movements to the jacked shoe to present the shoe properly to the several operating instrumentalities, and to trans- 2 fer the operation of said instrumentalities about the shoe. The shoe operating 'devices of the machine are particularly but by no means exclusively adapted for use in a machine of [this description. The shoe operating devices of the illustrated machine include an inseam shoe sewing mechanism adapted for sewing together the insole, upper and welt of the shoe supported on a last, a side lasting gripper adapted for drawing in succesive portions of the upper for the operation of the sewing mechanism, and an inseam trimming knife which is arranged closely ladjacent the sewing mechanism and acts to trim the sewn seam. The shoe is located with relation to the shoe operating devices by means of a channel guide which is located to support the shoe against the thrust of the needle and to provide a point of support about which the shoe is tipped and turned for presenting the shoe to the sewing and trimming devices during the transfer of the operation about the sole margin of the shoe.

Referring specically to the drawings, the operating devices of the machine comprise a chainstitch shoe sewing mechanism having a curved hook needle |20 movablel in the line of feed, an

oscillatory looper |22 and a thread fingerV |24 which is movable in a direction substantially vparallel to the line of feed and away from the completed stitches kof the seam and away from a rotary tubular knife |30. vThe knife |30, more -fully described inthe parent application above referred to, is of relatively large size with its axis parallel to the line of feed and with the cutting knife passing transversely across the sewn inseam. l e

The sewing instrumentalities of the illustrated machine which comprise more specifically the subject-matter of the invention, include the curved hook needle |20, which together with its supporting segment is carried on an oscillatory feed lever 600 having back and forth-movements in the line of feed. 'I'he needle feed lever is formed with a sleeve huhwhich is mounted on a vertical pivot shaft 602 and a rearwardly extending cam lever arm 604 which carries a follower roller 606 for engagement with a peripheral feed cam track in ya cam disk 608 on 'the sewing cam shaft of the machina The needle feed lever is formed at its forward extremity with a semi-circular cup-'shaped shield 6|!! which provides a pivotal support generally designated at 6I2 for a segmental support '6|4. The needle is further supported against lateral strains by meansof a needle guide GIS arranged to turn about the 'pivot 6`|2 and havingan-aperture provided by a transversely extending` shaft 8|2.A

The lever 620 is connected by a link 624 with an upwardly extending lever arm 626 which is formed with a sleeve hub 628 on a transversely extendrock shaft 636 for the looper |22 is supported for rotational movement in a bore in a forwardly extending bracket 638 carried on the nose of the sewing head. The rock shaft 636 is provided at its upper end with a bearing collar 640 which engages against the upper end of the bearing .support and is provided adjacent its lower end with a worm gear B42 which meshes with a worm ing pivot shaft 630. An upwardly extending cam Y follower lever arm 632 formed on the sleeve hub 628 carries a roller 634 for engagement with a cam track formed in one face of the cam disk 668.

In accordance with the invention, the looper |22 above referred to is supported on a rock shaft to turn on a small radius about an axis inclined forwardly from the vertical and substantially in line with the end of the needle in the needle threading position. The looper acts to carry the thread forwardly around the hook of the needle to the left in a counterclockwise direction (see Fig. 4) while at the same time the thread finger |24 engages a portion of the thread extending between the looper and the work and moves substantially in the line of feed to the right away from the looper and needle and away from the tubular trimming knife |30, to assist in the needle wrap and to provide slack thread at the work side of the needle loop. As the needle is subsequently withdrawn through the work and carries with it the needle loop, the thread finger again moves to the left to give up this excess thread.

The manner of looping around the needle to the left or in a counterclockwise direction which is contrary to the usual practice, has been found -to have substantial advantages in the illustrated machine. While looping to the left in accordance with the illustration of Fig. 4, the supply side of the loop is placed to the flute side of the needle which results in a neat passage of the needle and thread through the stock, and substantially reduces the chances of thread abuse where sewing through metal staples is necessary. A further advantage of the illustrated method of thread handling as shown in Fig. 4, consists in the fact that the thread on the leading side of the needle can be positively controlled by the take-up lever without reaving thread in the barb of the needle. The possibility of such control is of substantial importance in that by a proper setting of the take-up lever action it is possible to keep that side of the loop extending toward the supply taut while back feeding the needle.

The advantage of this mode of operation becomes evident particularly during the operation about the toe where the turning of the shoe causes a slight shortening of the cordal distance between the barb of the needle and the hole in the work, so that the needle tends to back feed out of the loop, and to drop stitches.

It has been found that the seam formed with the method of thread handling employed on the present machine, is substantially tighter than that which is formed with the more conventional method of looping the needle in a clockwise direction, in that that side of the loop extending from the supply and which is subject to the direct tightening action of the take-up is placed uppermost in the seam, tending to flatten and draw in the stitch, which permits close trimming of the inseam by the following inseam trimming cutter without risk of cutting the thread.

As best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the supporting 644 on a rearwardly extending driving sleeve 64S which is externally supported on a bearing formed on the bracket 638. A tapered pinion 648 formed on the rearward end of the driving sleeve S46 meshes with a correspondingly tapered gear segment S50 on one arm of a bell-crank lever 652 supported to turn on the sleeve hub of the needle actuating lever 620 (see Figs. 2 and 3). An upwardly extending arm of the bell-crank 652 is vconnected by a link 654 with an arm |558 which is loosely sleeved on a rock shaft S58 and is formed with a rearwardly extending cam lever arm 660. A roller 662 supported on the cam lever arm 66|) is arranged for engagement with a cam track 664 formed in the face of a cam disk 656 secured to the driving gear |12.

The thread finger |24 is secured to the forward end of a drive shaft 668 which is mounted within the sleeve drive shaft 646. At its rear end the shaft 658 is formed with a bevelled gear segment Sli) meshing with the bevelled gear segment 612 which constitutes one arm of a bell-crank 514 mounted to turn on the sleeve hub of the needle actuating lever 620, the other arm of which is connected by a link 616 with a downwardly extending lever arm 618 sleeved on the rock shaft 658. The sleeve hub of the lever 618 is formed with a rearwardly extending cam lever arm 680 which carries a roller 682 for engagement with a switch cam track 684 formed in the right hand face of the driving gear |12. The thread nger |24 is thus arranged to move substantially in the direction of the line of feed so that the thread engaging portion thereof moves back and forth in the stitch receiving channel and without at any time crossing the sewing rib. This construction has been found to be of substantial advantage in connection with the counterclockwise looping operation above described in that it provides for the more eicient control of the thread looped into the eye of the needle including the substantial elimination of any interference through engagement of the thread with upstanding portions of the sewing rib.

As best shown in Fig. l, the thread supplied to the needle is drawn from a thread tension wheel '|94 around an auxiliary take-up tension roller HU', around a main take-up tension roller 'H4 carried on a take-up lever 10|), and thence around an idler roller 'H6 to the looper |22.

I'he invention having been described, what is claimed is:

1. In a machine for operating upon shoes, an inseam shoe sewing mechanism having a sewing head and sewing devices mounted on the sewing head which comprise a curved hook needle arranged to enter `the welt side of the work and to emerge in the stitch receiving channel, a rotary looper movable forwardly in a counterclockwise direction to loop the thread to that side of the needle hook adjacent Ithe completed stitches of the seam when the needle is through the work, a thread finger moving to engage a portion of the thread extending between the needle and the work and to draw thread in the line of feed away from theV completed stitches of the seam, a thread take-up `from which the thread passes to the looper, and actuating means for said sewing devices.

2. In a machine for operating upon shoes, an inseam shoe sewing mechanism having sewing devices which comprise a curved hook needle arranged to enter the welt side of the work and to emerge in the stitch receiving channel, a rotary looper movable forwardly in la counterclockwise direction to loop the thread to that side of the needle hook adjacent the completed stitches of the seam, a thread finger movable to engage Ia portion of the thread extending between the needle and Work and to draw thread in the line of feed away from the completed stitches of the seam, a thread take-up from which the thread passes to the looper. and actuating connections for the looper and thread finger comprising a forwardly extending thread finger supporting and actuating shaft, and a looper actuating shaft co-axial therewith, and a d looper supporting shaft disposed in angular relation to and operatively connected to be driven from said looper actuating shaft.

3. In a machine for sewing together the shoe parts forming the inseam including an insole having a sewing rib providing at the base thereof a stitch receiving channel, a curved hook needle arranged to enter the work from the outside and to emerge in the stitch receiving channel and having the hook thereof disposedat that side of the needle with the completed stitches of the seam, a looper having a rot-ary movement forwardly in a counter-clockwise direction across the hook side of the needle when the needle is through the work, a thread iinger supported on the machine to turn on an axis extending transversely of the line of feed Iand having a depending thread engaging surface moving -along the line of feed in the stitch receiving channel to draw a portion of the thread extending between the needle and 4U the work; away from the completed stitches of the seam and to draw a bight of thread into the needle hook, a thread take-up from which the thread passes to the looper, and actuating means for said sewing devices.

4. In a machine for operating upon shoes, an inseam shoe sewing mechanism having a sewing head and sewing devices mounted on the sewing head which comprise a curved hook needle arranged to enter the welt side of the work and to emerge in the stitch receiving channel, Ia rotary looper, a thread finger supported on the machine to swing about an axis extending forwardly across the line of feed and having a depending thread engaging surface moving along the line of feed in the stitch receivingchannel to draw 'a portion of the thread extending between the needle and the work away from the completed stitches of the seam and to draw a bight of thread into the needle hook, ia channel guide, and supporting :and actuating mechanism including a rotatable looper supporting shaft supported from the sewing head having the axis thereof disposed in a substantially vertical and forwardly inclined plane, and la forwardly extending thread nger supporting and :actu-ating shaft on which the thread finger is mounted supported to turn on said :axis on the sewing head.

RUTH W. MORRILL, Administratri of the Estate of Alfred R. M01'- rz'll, Deceased.

Name Date Erickson Oct. 16, 1917 Number 

